For the second time, this Monday, July 22, the administrative court of Lille validated in summary proceedings the termination of the State contract with the Averroès high school in Lille, the main Muslim high school in France, confirming the end of public subsidies a few weeks before the start of the school year. The court considered that there was “no reason to maintain the association contract linking the Averroès high school to the State until the decision to terminate this contract, taken by the prefect of the North, is examined by the trial judges”, according to a communication sent to AFP. Contacted, the lawyer for the school could not be reached immediately.
In December 2023, the State terminated its contract with the high school, founded in 2003, citing “serious breaches of the fundamental principles of the Republic”. The high school said it feared for its survival following this decision, effective September 1, 2024. In February, the administrative court, which had already been seized in summary proceedings, confirmed the prefecture’s decision, finding that the establishment had failed to meet its obligations on two occasions.
On the one hand, by opposing without sufficient reason an unannounced inspection of the Documentation and Information Center (CDI). And on the other hand, by citing as a source for Muslim ethics courses a collection of religious texts including commentaries that advocate the death penalty in the event of apostasy and gender segregation. The new interim relief application detailed the corrective measures taken by the establishment and pointed out the “manifestly disproportionate consequences” of the cessation of subsidies in the face of “the unsubstantial grievances upheld by the administration”.
A third failure
The school’s lawyer assured during the hearing that the termination of the contract was synonymous with the “slow death” of the establishment, which had to double tuition fees for high school students, and fears that many teachers will leave if the end of public subsidies is confirmed.
The administrative court ruled on Monday that “the two breaches noted in February, even if they had given rise to corrective measures, still prevented the provisional resumption of the association contract, given the nature of these breaches.”
The court also notes a third breach, “the irregular creation, by the director of the establishment at the time, of a file listing certain personal data of the agents of the National Education services who intervened during a previous inspection”, which is “such as to justify the refusal to provisionally maintain the contract pending the judgment on the merits”.